Gloomy Grey Eyes
by heroherondaletotheresuce
Summary: Tessa is blind since birth, been friends with Cecily since she was younger, met William more than once, but never had a solid relationship/friendship. Tessa had planned a day out with Cecily, a picnic in the park and catching up after the summer break. Cecily unfortunately had other plans and couldn't make it so she sent William in her place. Disclaimer: Cassandra owns her stuff.


One Shot – Wessa

MODERN AU – Age: 19-20ish. Tessa is blind since birth, been friends with Cecily since she was younger, met William more than once, but never had a solid relationship/friendship.

One Republic – I lived.

Plot – Tessa had planned a day out with Cecily, a picnic in the park and catching up after the summer break. Cecily unfortunately had other plans and couldn't make it so she sent William to go in her place.

Inspired by this post - post/48560322219/imagine-person-a-being-blind-from -birth-they#notes

Tessa sat on the comfortable leather couch, her hands sitting in her lap and her white cane settled next to her. She was downstairs in the Herondale Mansion awaiting for Cecily to come downstairs so they could head off for their girls day out. Tessa and Cecily had both planned it over the summer whilst they were on holiday in Wales and she was visiting New York. They had both finally arrived back and wanted to catch up with all the juicy details of their extraordinary holidays before their first year of college started at the Institute. Tessa had been waiting downstairs for at least a good ten minutes after her brother Nate dropped her off. She wondered when Cecily would be down and ready.

Moments later she heard footsteps rushing down what seemed to be enormous stairs but she wouldn't know really how big they were, after all she couldn't see. Seconds later she was engulfed into a giant hug and squealing which obviously came from Cecily.

"Tessa, how are you? Wow you look fabulous." Cecily said, pulling away from her and giving her a twirl. Tessa had taken Charlotte's advice and bought the white sundress which apparently looked gorgeous on her. She took the advice, knowing that she couldn't judge it herself, not knowing what it looked like.

"Thanks Cecily. I'm great; we better leave now if we want to get a nice cool spot near the lake." Tessa said, grabbing her cane from the side of the couch and leaning on it slightly. Cecily was silent for a moment, she didn't want to ruin Tessa's day but she really wanted to see Gabriel.

"Tessa, would you be mad if I didn't come." Cecily asked, and then realised it was a bit of a stupid question, of course she would be, they had planned this all summer over the phone and now Cecily was ditching her. Well not completely in a sense.

"Gabriel's coming back early from Spain for our two year anniversary, and he made dinner plans and I just- I'm sorry Tessa. I'm a horrible person." Cecily said awkwardly, placing a hand on Tessa's shoulder. Tessa sighed and even though she should be angry at Cecily she wasn't. She knew how much Gabriel and Cecily loved each other and well who was she to be the third wheel ruining their special day.

"It's fine Cecily, don't worry. We can organise this for another time, I'll just call Nate to pick me up." Tessa replied, pulling her phone out of her back pocket. The new smart phones came in handy, the settings were altered to fit her needs, all she had to do was hold down on one button and it would immediately dial Nate's number and take instructions verbally. But before she could even do that Cecily took her phone of her.

"NO." and then Cecily realised she screamed. "Sorry, um no you can still go to the park, for the picnic. I've organised for someone to come with you." Cecily said, giving Tessa her phone back.

"Who?" Tessa asked confused, she didn't really have a lot of friends, mostly because of her condition. Yes people would be sympathetic towards her and kind but that's it. Cecily treated her like a normal person, not someone who was disabled or couldn't do anything for herself. So naturally when she said that she had organised for someone to come with her she was very, very confused. Tessa assumed she had a smiling but sort of neutral expression on her face, but when she heard the next words come out of Cecily's mouth she could feel her face drop completely.

"So he willingly agreed to take me out… to the park." Tessa said gulping slightly, unsure of what to think of this predicament she was in.

"Yes and can you please act like he isn't the worst human being to walk this earth." Cecily whispered hastily as they heard footsteps in the hallway.

"He threw a paintball at me, I had green paint in my hair for days." Tessa hissed, still not over the incident that had taken place well like five years ago, or at least tried to make it seem that way to hide her true feelings.

"Oh get over it. Both of you need to grow up." Cecily huffed as William walked into the room. But what Cecily didn't know was that the whole green paintball thing was just a front. Yes there was a paintball fight sometime that year but it was actually what happened before that which had made the two who were sort of friends, split up completely. William had kissed Tessa. She was no way ready for any sort of relationship, she was just finding it hard enough to get through high school being blind and getting good marks. She had told him that she was unsure of her feelings and wasn't ready to get into a relationship and well she ended up hurting him. She didn't mean to but in the end it hurt him and William did what he does best, put up walls. He barley spoke to her after that, to this day she wasn't sure if they had even carried a proper conversation that lasted for longer than ten minutes in well the last five years. She found it to be childish even though she knew that her words and rejection was partially the problem but ever since she had never taken William Herondale seriously and had well tried to hate him.

"Morning Tess, lovely to see you." William said, smirking and slipping on his zip up hoddie. Tessa rolled her eyes and then figured if she had to be with him all day she may as well try and be civil. For Cecily's sake and for her own.

"Morning William." She turned to where she assumed Cecily was.

"Go on then, have fun with your boyfriend." She said giving Cecily a hug before Cecily ran out of the room, giggling like a little girl on Christmas morning.

"So where are we off to today?" William asked, leaning against one of the pillars that connected to the stairs.

"The park, you know the one with that Lake." She said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, but William knew because that lake was usually the home of the animal that he loathed the most. Ducks. He'd rather go somewhere else, but Tessa wanted to go there, so go there they shall.

"I'll grab the food, can you wait a minute." William asked and she nodded. He came back a few minutes later with a small picnic basket that contained a picnic blanket, some fruits and homemade sandwiches and some drinks.

"Ready to go."

"As I'll ever be." Tessa mumbled.

"Come on, Cheer up Tess, after all you get to be with me all day long." William teased, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the garage.

"Yay me." She exclaimed sarcastically. When they arrived, she heard William put the basket somewhere, clicking something into place and then handing her a helmet.

"Uh, why do I have a helmet in my hands." Tessa asked, folding up her white cane, til it was small enough and placing it in her side bag.

"Cecily took the car, so we have to take-." And Tessa cut him off, knowing exactly what he was going to say.

"You mean that death-trap you call a motorbike." And that's when William rolled his eyes. He jumped on, and she followed, touching the back seat and filing in behind him.

"You might want to hold on Tess." He said loudly, over the sound of the garage door opening up. She gulped slightly, being this close to him made her body kind of go into shock. She didn't answer and just placed her hands carefully on both side of his waist, and then realised what a big of a mistake that was. William shot out of the garage and onto the road, causing Tessa to wrap her arms around his torso in fear that she'd fall off.

She couldn't help but laugh at how scared she was, which caused William to laugh too. She could feel the vibrations in his chest as he chuckled and she had to admit that she did like that feeling.

Soon enough they arrived at the park and he had taken her hand, helping her walk, instead of her having to rely on her cane, and she was thankful, because well for one thing she didn't have to get lost, which happened quite a bit and two she got to hold his hand. The whole time they were walking there all she could think about was how she was now well sure of her feelings, she definitely liked him, but was she five years too late? After all they were only 15 and he couldn't have known that he felt that way about her… could he?

She was brought out of her thoughts when William said; he had set up the picnic, food and all. He helped her find a nice spot to sit and they both leaned against the tree for support, enjoying the food and laughing at each other's antics. It felt like they were friends again and she could settle for that for now. They had just calmed down from laughing and she was leaning against the tree and she swore she could feel Williams stare burn into her skin, sending shivers up her spine. She was sure that it wasn't the cool summer breeze making her feel that way. She grabbed a grape from the plate in front of them and popped it into her mouth, savouring the sweet taste. It was turning out to be quite a nice day out.

"I might be blind, but I can feel you staring at me." She chuckled, brushing a stray hair behind her ear.

"I was just admiring the view." William said softly and she could feel her neck and cheeks flare up. She wished that her body wouldn't have these reactions to his charming comments.

"Well why don't you describe the view?" And she had expected him to start describing his surroundings, the sparkling blue lake, possibly the vast amount of flowers in bloom but no, he described her.

"A stunning river of brown waves, gloomy grey eyes, no match for the storms of mother nature and well, an adorable blush situated across the most artistic set of cheekbones to ever have lived." He declared and she was sure that her whole face was flaring up. She didn't know what else to do but grin at his flattering description.

"Sounds spectacular." She said running a hand through her hair.

"Yeah, she is."

"Are you flirting with me Herondale?" she chuckled, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"So what if I am? You got a problem with that." He teased, looking down at her.

"No, in fact I welcome it." She giggled, rubbing at her eyes, trying to hide the tear that seeped through. Just in that moment, she wished she could see him, see his apparent blue eyes. She wondered what blue looked like. She wondered what he looked like. Was he as handsome as Sophie had described him to be? William seemed to notice this and put his arm around her shoulder in a comforting way.

"What's on your mind?"

"Just wondering what you look like..." she whispered, taking in a deep breath, before a small thought wandered into her mind.

"Do you mind if I-I um touch your face, to s-sort of get a picture of what you look like?" she stuttered awkwardly, realising how that sounded. He laughed, but brought her hand up to his face, and slowly she let her fingers gently trace the shape of his face down from his temple to his jaw, feeling the light stubble resting on the side of his jaw and chin. William closed his eyes, taking the feeling of her in. She ran her fingers gingerly over his eyes and the down what seemed to be some amazing cheekbones and to his lips. They felt soft under her fingertips, and before she realised what was happened, her hand was placed on the side of his cheek and her other on his chest, with his hand on her waist pulling her close and then they were kissing. Just like when they were 15. But for some reason, this felt so much better. It felt right. Their lips moved together, perfectly moulded to fit each other. The soft kiss made her heart race and her head dizzy with a buzz. She could even taste the faint bit of strawberry that William had eaten before and it was melodiously sweet. They broke away taking in a heavy breaths and he rested his forehead against hers.

"Wow." She breathed, removing her hands from his hair which was felt luscious when it was woven between her long fingers.

"Wow, is right Tess." He chuckled, swiftly bringing her in for another kiss causing her to smile whilst she was kissing him.

"I love you." She blurted out, her lips still against his. Whilst she expected to have a rush of anxiety over her, there was none. She was sure this time. She did love him.

"And I, Love, you." He whispered giving her another kiss.


End file.
